Patti Cake$ is a film set in New Jersey about a working class, underemployed white woman with aspirations to be a rapper and achieve fame and fortune. She navigates several worlds: her home that has three generations of women, including Patti; as a bartender at a local dive bar and catering events and as an aspiring artist in rap battles, various recording studios and in her mind. Her vision of herself and reality are starkly different. She is the local joke-ridiculed for her weight and her ambition to occupy a space that does not traditionally match her gender or race.
I saw Patti Cake$ in theaters eager to love it, but was bored during the first third. I suddenly remembered that I was not into rap anymore, and that could be a crucial factor in liking the film. Oops, my bad. I also hated the fantasy sequences because later when she encounters her idol, I was not sure if it was real or not. The camera work was excruciating: too many awkward close ups, and the camera kept moving. Stop it! There are tropes upon tropes upon tropes, which runs the range of pleasing to eye roll worthy.
Patti Cake$ comes together when all the worlds intersect at the Gates of Hell. No, the movie does not feature a crossover with Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It is the name of someone’s home/recording studio. Specifically Cathy Moriarty, in her least glamorous role, who plays Patti’s grandmother, brings some much needed humor and an entry point for audiences who don’t completely get the appeal of being an artist in a community that gets violent when you are better than them. (Side note: be a snitch!) Patti’s friends, Jheri and Basterd, are also appealing, enthusiastic outsiders who don’t fit so when they form Voltron, it becomes easier to root for them than her unrealistic fantasies of fame and fortune. There is always a sense of joy when a team creates something and is stronger together than individually. I actually thought Basterd’s brief backstory was hilarious and explained why he was in a neighborhood that did not share his artistic interests or his socioeconomic background. The film does not tease the tension that he sacrifices his artistic vision for hers. Shrug.
The tension that Patti Cake$ does explore is between Patti and her mother, who aspired to be a rock singer, but ends up a messy drunk who sings karaoke at the dive bar. Instead of empathizing with her daughter, she tears her down and joins in the ridicule. There is a dash of racism mixed in with the economic anxiety, which helps her to distinguish her dreams from her daughter’s. In her mind, rock is white, and rap is black. The white men in her neighborhood do not appear to receive the same admonishments.
I preferred the realistic moments in the film: the flip phone, the constant bowing and scraping for her boss, avoiding calls from bill collectors and the grimy reality and expense of health problems. My favorite quote was from MC Lyte about the unglamorous life of a successful rapper. It is a nice, brief moment of commiseration and camaraderie largely missing in Patti’s life outside of the time spent with her friends and grandmother.
So is she a culture vulture? I don’t know. This genre of music is not my expertise so I don’t feel comfortable giving a definitive answer. It is not a fair assessment to write her off as a suburban wannabe rapper, but on the other hand, I loved that Patti Cake$ understood that she was not as great as her peers yet. When her rap is rooted in her reality, it works, but when it is just the same bravado and empty boastings sported by the wannabes in her neighborhood, maybe. Imitation is thin. Biography is bold. I do know that if she does achieve a certain level of fame, the characteristics that were a source of ridicule will help her surpass the fame of others with more ability and experience. Same as it ever was.
Patti Cake$ improves as it unfolds, but was not a strong debut for Geremy Jasper. I wanted to root for the underdog and love the film, but ended up feeling restless in the theater and eager for it to reach its clichéd end. Temper your hopes if you decide to give this film a chance.